BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 822
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          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 822 (Business, Professions and Economic Development  
          Committee)
          As Amended  August 19, 2013
          Majority vote

           SENATE VOTE  :36-0  
           
           BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS      12-0APPROPRIATIONS      17-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Gordon, Bocanegra,        |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow,   |
          |     |Campos, Dickinson,        |     |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian  |
          |     |Eggman, Hagman, Holden,   |     |Calderon, Campos,         |
          |     |Maienschein, Mullin,      |     |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez,  |
          |     |Skinner, Ting, Wilk       |     |Hall, Holden, Linder,     |
          |     |                          |     |Pan, Quirk, Wagner, Weber |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           
          SUMMARY :  Makes several technical changes to provisions within  
          the Business and Professions Code (BPC) related to the  
          regulation of various professions, including those overseen by  
          the California Board of Accountancy (CBA), the Contractors'  
          State License Board (CSLB), the Board of Guide Dogs for the  
          Blind (BGDB), and the Board for Professional Engineers, Land  
          Surveyors and Geologists (BPELSG).  Specifically,  this bill  :

          1)Repeals an outdated section of the BPC requiring the Cemetery  
            Board and Funeral Directors and Embalmers Board to consolidate  
            by January 1, 1996. 

          2)Repeals an outdated section of the BPC that required the  
            Structural Pest Control Board to make certain reports and take  
            specific actions by January 1, 1996.

          3)Makes the following changes related to the CBA:

             a)   Requires an out-of-state practice privilege holder to  
               notify the CBA of pending criminal charges in any  
               jurisdiction, and allows the CBA to initiate an  
               investigation to determine whether there is immediate  
               consumer harm; and,  

             b)   Authorizes the CBA to issue citations for violations to  
               the BPC to out-of-state licensees practicing in California  








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               under practice privilege.

          4)Makes the following changes related to CSLB:

             a)   Specifies that the term "contractor" or "consultant"  
               does not include a certified common interest development  
               (CID) manager, and clarifies that a CID manager is not  
               required to hold a contractor's license to perform  
               management services; 

             b)   Repeals the requirement that the CSLB post a listing of  
               all applications approved during the previous 12 months at  
               its quarterly meetings, and deletes a reference to the  
               outdated requirement to perform "field" investigations for  
               a specialty license; 

             c)   Clarifies the registrar's authority to order a licensee  
               to make restitution for aiding or abetting unlicensed  
               activity; and,  

             d)   Provides that a license renewal applicant who submitted  
               an incomplete renewal application prior to his or her  
               license expiration date will not be required to pay the  
               delinquency fee, if CSLB returned the incomplete  
               application to the applicant for corrections, and then the  
               licensee resubmitted the completed and acceptable  
               application within 30 days of the license expiration date.

          5)Makes the following changes related to the BGDB:

             a)   Deletes the requirement that the BGDB hold meetings at  
               least once a year for the purposes of administering  
               licensing examinations to guide dog instructor applicants;  
               and, 

             b)   Deletes a reference to "seeing-eye dog" to refer only to  
               "guide dog."

          6)Makes the following changes related to the BPELSG:  
             
             a)   Establishes a retired status license for a professional  
               geologist or geophysicist who has been registered by the  
               board for a minimum of five years within California and a  
               minimum of 20 years within the United States;









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             b)   Provides that the fee for a retired registration for a  
               professional geologist or geophysicist shall be fixed at  
               not more than 50% of the license fee that is in effect on  
               the date of application for a retired registration; and, 

             c)   Makes technical changes to BPC Sections 7851 and 7887,  
               replacing references to the term "registration" with  
               "license." 

          7)Adds language to avoid chaptering out issues with SB 152  
            (Roth). 


          8)Makes other technical and clarifying changes.


           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee:

          1)This bill provides an exception to the current requirement  
            that a licensee renewing his or her contractor's license pay a  
            delinquency fee in the cases where an incomplete application  
            has been returned to the applicant by CSLB.  Under this bill,  
            an applicant will not have to pay the delinquency fee if he or  
            she returns the application within 30 days and the applicant's  
            current license has not expired.  CSLB estimates a potential  
            loss of revenue from delinquency fees in the range of $100,000  
            per year.  

          2)The remaining costs associated with this legislation are minor  
            and absorbable within the affected boards' budgets. 
           
          COMMENTS  :  

           1)Purpose of this bill  .  This bill is one of three committee  
            bills authored and sponsored by the Senate Business,  
            Professions and Economic Development Committee for the purpose  
            of consolidating multiple non-controversial revisions into a  
            single bill.  As a committee bill, "if controversy or  
            opposition should arise regarding any provision that cannot be  
            resolved, then that provision will be removed from the bill.   
            This will eliminate the chance of placing any of the other  
            provisions in jeopardy."  By combining the provisions related  
            to various regulatory programs and professions governed by the  
            BPC into one bill, this bill provides relief to the different  








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            licensing boards, bureaus, professions and other regulatory  
            agencies that would have to otherwise separate out each  
            measure.  

           2)Provisions related to the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau  .  BPC  
            Section 102.1 was made obsolete when AB 2888 (Consumer  
            Protection, Governmental Efficiency and Economic Development  
            Committee), Chapter 568, Statutes of 2000, consolidated the  
            Cemetery Board and Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers  
            into the current Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.  

           3)Provisions related to the Structural Pest Board  .  BPC Section  
            102.2 required the Structural Pest Control Board to make  
            certain reports during the 1995-96 Budget Year, and specified  
            that the specific contingencies needed to occur January 1,  
            1996.  As this date has passed, this outdated section in no  
            longer relevant. 

           4)Provisions related to the California Board of Accountancy  .   
            Under current law, an out-of-state licensee who exercises a  
            practice privilege in California is not required to notify the  
            CBA of any pending criminal charges, which leads to  
            inconsistent notifications.  This bill would require such  
            notifications. 

            Beginning July 1, 2013, BPC Section 5096.2 authorizes CBA to  
            revoke, suspend, or fine a practice privilege holder for  
            specified violations, but does not authorize the CBA to issue  
            citations to out-of-state licensees practicing in California.   
            This bill would rectify that situation by permitting CBA to  
            cite out-of-state licenses.  

           5)Provisions related to the Contractors' State License Board  .   
            According to the CSLB, "there are duplicative posting  
            requirements for licensure applications found under the  
            Contractors' State License Law in BPC 7080.5 and BPC 7065."   
            This bill strikes the second reference, and also removes the  
            outdated term "field" investigations, which consist strictly  
            of review of documents. 

            CSLB states that "without a change to BPC 7114, a restitution  
            order cannot be included in an accusation, even though the  
            underlying charge of aiding and abetting unlicensed practice  
            is included in the pleading for disciplinary action.  As such,  
            restitution cannot be a condition for reinstatement of the  








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            license, and the consumer must try to recoup financial losses  
            through other means, such as a civil action."

            Each month CSLB receives a number of licensee renewal  
            applications that are submitted with errors. These  
            applications cannot be processed, and must be returned to the  
            licensee to make corrections.  In cases where licensees must  
            correct and resend their renewals back to CSLB, they often  
            miss the deadline and are charged the delinquency fee even  
            though they made a good-faith effort to submit the application  
            on time.  This bill provides that an incomplete renewal  
            application that had originally been submitted on or before  
            the license expiration date may be returned within 30 days  
            after the license expiration date, and the delinquency fee  
            shall not apply.  

           6)Provisions related to the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind  .   
            According to BGDB, "In 2005, the BDGB conducted an  
            Occupational Analysis which created a legally defensible  
            examination involving subject matter experts conducting the  
            instructor examinations, as opposed to Board Members."  For  
            this reason, an amendment to BPC Section 7203 is necessary for  
            clarification.  

            The term "seeing-eye dog" is trademarked by the Seeing Eye Dog  
            School in New Jersey, and refers to a specific type of dog  
            from this school.  Eliminating reference to "seeing-eye dog,"  
            in BPC Section 7210 and using only the term "guide dog" brings  
            updated terminology to the Code.  

           7)Provisions related to the Board for Professional Engineers,  
            Land Surveyors and Geologists  .  Currently, there is no option  
            for a retired geologist or geophysicist to obtain a "retired"  
            license status after he or she is no longer practicing.  Many  
            retirees would like the opportunity to have the choice of a  
            retired status, which engineers and land surveyors already  
            have under the Professional Engineers Act and the Professional  
            Land Surveyors Act. 

           8)Provisions related to Fictitious Business Name Statements  .   
            According to the California Association of Clerks and Election  
            Officials, AB 1325 (Lara), Chapter 368, Statutes of 2012, made  
            a number of changes relating to fictitious business names,  
            including making references to "married couple" rather than to  
            "husband and wife."  This bill would conform BPC Section  








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            17914, which still refers to "husband and wife" to the modern  
            terminology. 
                

            Analysis Prepared by  :    Angela Pontes / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)  
          319-3301 


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